View Single Post in: Discussion: Lot Size, Orientation, Rotation, etc.

Mad Poster
#295 Old 10th Oct 2007 at 6:23 AM
Sorry, I guess I misunderstood something in Inge's post when I re-read it...

Lol,.. may add some lines to switch the neihourhood.txt script file with a modded one to facilitate that if necessary.

Change max slope value
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=47544


Added:
I fooled around on how to switch the lot terrain texture.
It's really interesting that the "lot terrain texture" reference in the Lot Description file of the Neighbourhood package file. has no effect on how the lot package file presents its lot terrain autonomously. Probably, this is for the custom terrain painting?
Anyway, in the neighbourhood view, blending may occur.

Once a lushy lot is dumped into a desertoid neighbourhood, the "lot terrain texture" reference is automatically switched to the desertoid terrain texture "lottexture-canvas-desert" in the Lot Description file of the Neighbourhood package file, but this won't change the reference in the lot package file automatically. I'm unsure of Maxis original intentions.

OK, now about how I did in a way,

I basically switched the lot texture files between a lushy lot and a desertoid lot for my laziness and it appears to work for my purpose. Note to alter the lot size values W and H accordingly as instructed in Andi's 1x1 lot creation here (The link is just for references)
Quote: Originally posted by Andi8104
'Lot Texture Map' (4B58975B): Width (Offset 72) value = X * 10, Height (Offset 76) value = Y * 10


That's it, pretty simple.

Now, if there's no flaw with this simple approach, ones can easily swtich the lot terrain texture fast for their needs.

The graphical results are shown in the attached pix.
Also, the lot texture file extracts for the lush and desert.

References:
http://www.modthesims2.com/showpost...3&postcount=295
http://www.sims2wiki.info/wiki.php?title=4B58975B
http://www.modthesims2.com/showpost...&postcount=1475


Added2:
I'm trying to replicate Inge's 11x20 lot experiment..
I've a made 11x20 lot but the expanded last 2 lines are still unbuildable, quite unlike Inge's one. Here So, the one I did was more like a normal lot in this aspect?

I wonder if the graphics and the geometry are separable, so testing the value rangers for these steps may help.

There're 6 simpe steps to shrink a lot, and here now, I'm gonna bonker to vary the values to see what may happen. Anyway, the fix by the game engine can be yet another surprise.

1. Strangely, the 10x20 lots have their offset 95 and 99 values in the wall graph files altered in an array way.
Now, they have values like X * 10 + n, Height (Offset 99) value = Y * 10 + n; n= 4,5,6,7.
I've doubly checkex and H/Yd they're supposed to be 11 and 21 before loading the game to save-fix the new lots, but I guess the game engine still used 20 and 40 to fix the wall graph's W/X and H/Y values.
Omg, really odd.
But it seems they're still working well...

So, wall graph can't be smaller?

2. Changes in the Lot Texture Map (4B58975B) doesn't cause a crash or remove the additional terrain texturing on the additional row/column of grids. Probably, the H and W values will only affect the mapping scale as the corresponding shader suggested.

3. A single alteration at the world database file can lead to a game crash during the lot loading. But it does work well with altered 2D and 3D without the other three and produce the extra grid lines.

4. The W or X value altered from 1 to 2 in the lot file 0x6C589723 doesn't cause a 10x20 lot to crash, nor does it produce the extra gridlines or affect the wall partition buildbility.

5. Just altered 2D files won't cause a crash, nor does it produce the extra gridlines or affect the wall partition buildbility.

6. Just altered 3D files won't cause a crash, nor does it produce the extra gridlines or affect the wall partition buildbility.

7. I've succeeded to use invisible tiles to completely nullify the extended part of a lot to avoid graphical flicking. My version of an invisible tile is attached below.

8. The attached lot is a 12x20 lot with lighting from the front left of the lot.
Note this is not a completely modded lot coz it has only modified 2D , 3D and worlddatabase files with the in-game-modified wall graph files, skipping the changes in the lot file and the lot texture file intentionally.

9. I've tried a 12x20 lot by modded world database file and the modded 3D array files alone, skipping even modded 2D array files, and the lot does load and I can even build walls and floors on it well.
Such lot is buildable and reimportable from the lot bin. But in my play-tst with most services and phone options, and it seems it's stable to save them and reload... I'm unsure what the missing 2D arrays may cause, but obviously in our interests here.
I tend to assume to have the same or more as a better option than to have less.
I'm not posting it until someone wants it or testing.

10. kinda expected just modded 2D and world alone would cause a crash...
So, the order of importance for resizing a lot is
World database >= 3D arrays >= equal/over-sized Wall graphs > 2D arrays (for extra floor grid layer or for terrain paint layers?) > lot texture (for terrain paint) > lot file (for description only?)
The neighbourhood package's lot description can only affect the lot's orientation in that neighbourhood or the reserved grid size (W x H) in the neighbourhood, but this doesn't affect the lot itself. so, Maxis made them kinda modular... but failed to connect them in a cause-and-effect way.

11.
Quote: Originally posted by Inge Jones
I tested the principle of the row houses and I believe it would work. It didn't go quite right because I found it impossible to accurately edit the huge rows of hex where I should have deleted two chunks of bytes on every line over several files. It's not realistic to do that manually, so I hope shrinking will be included in the lot expander.

Anyway I got a lot 11 lot-tiles wide (I meant to make it 10) and unfortunately I deleted the left hand 19 rather than the left 10 and the right 10 as I had intended. Again something including it in the program would easily help with.

I started by building a simple square building on the centre 10 tiles of a 3x2 lot. The walls remained standing on the edge of the lot and therefore could be used as the party walls of a row house.


So, wall1 partition can be somehow stable at the edge of a lot, or is it also because some other settings had stabilised the graphical illusion?

can you give me a copy of that lot if you still have it?

12. gonna make 14x20 for a clear possibility for row houses with invisible tiles, but if anything fruitful found out from Inge's case. That'll be just yet another alternative.

UPdated:
The last attached is the 14x20 lot for desert.
Screenshots
Attached files:
File Type: rar  lot-terrain-texture-template.rar (1.9 KB, 10 downloads)
File Type: rar  Moi_DR12x20_LightdeFrontLeft.rar (20.1 KB, 7 downloads)
File Type: rar  Moi_flr_null.rar (1.0 KB, 8 downloads)
File Type: rar  Moi_DR14x20_LightdeFL.rar (19.9 KB, 9 downloads)